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A veritable garden of delights surrounds two delectable pieces of beautifully cooked Black Angus beef. Sauced with beef jus table-side, the meat is paired with crispy potato puffs stood atop dehydrated pea "pebbles" and edible flowers. Though tasty, these were on the dry side and could have benefited from more sauce on the plate.
Taste: 3.5/5
Housed within a side building on the immense, sprawling grounds of luxury golf resort Penha Longa, Lab by Sergi Arola is white table cloth fine dining at its most soigné. We had front row seats to the view of the magnificently lush grounds through the floor to ceiling glass wall, and service was not only impeccable(bordering on ridiculous – they change your napkin everytime you leave your seat, and bread is sliced tableside by white-gloved waiters), but warm as well.
On par for course is food that meets the same lofty standards. Our red mullet was a thing of beauty, carefully deboned and faultlessly roasted to pristine perfection, served with a fluorish of intensely savoury red mullet jus, sweet romesco sharded with garlic and chilli chips, and batons of spring onion that shocked with the bitterness of charred spring onion powder.
Taste: 4/5
It might not look it, but everything makes sense on this plate. The spiced sweetbreads that have been deep-fried, oven-roasted and braised are the plumpest and most melt-in-your-mouth you’ll have ever eaten, dressed in a salty bordelaise sauce and accompanied strangely enough by a centrepiece of rich hollandaise, a combination one would think too rich but actually works wonders upon the palate. Sheer artistry is what the 3 petite parcels of faux tomato ravioli are, with the thin, glossy layers of "pasta" conjured from some molecular gastronomy alchemy, and the insides bursting with the bright, acidic flavours of fresh tomato.
Taste: 4/5
Savoury sorbets seem to be in vogue for Portugal’s fine dining scene. At 1 Michelin star Lab by Sergi Arola, our starter surprised and delighted with a myriad of unexpected textures and temperatures. The icy coolness and vegetal flavour of the grean bean sorbet played well with the earthy sweetness of the marinated beetroot “sashimi” beneath it, as well as the umami of the crunchy black olive “soil”.
Taste: 3.5/5
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the pattern and textures of this dish evoke some primordial undercurrent of repulsion in me. I’m happy to say that it tastes much better than it looks though, with the sweetest sheets of near translucent crawfish intricately decorated with dots of green apple puree and crispy ginger, enclosed in an umami ring of garlic aioli.
Taste: 3.5/5
